Jon & Kate Plus 8 - Behind the Scenes of Jon & Kate Plus 8

Behind the Scenes of Jon & Kate Plus 8
The show's production process; how it affects the family.

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I don't know how interested I am in this episode, but I'll give it whirl.

Kate says that she received an email one day and TLC thought that it would be interesting to show the family. Since the family was one of the first to publicize that they had 2 sets of multiples, so they thought they'd do a one hour special. Plus, it was a good way to document their lives. Before the 6 were born, they would video everything. So they figured it would be fun to try it out.

Seeing the clips from the old episodes, it's so interesting to see the old Kate. How much less pretentious she was, too!

Kate insists that this is a realistic show and that there is *no* scripting. Especially because Kate doesn't want to look back and know that it was fake. So what we see is what we get. I realized that you can see some of the crew in the mirrors of the house, and quite frankly, I would hate having someone in my face 24/7.

Cut to lovely clip of Kate flipping out. First we see her throw some sort of toy down the stairs and the girls freak out. Then Kate finds a doorknob and every kid blames the other kid. She then storms into the boys room and demands to know who broke the knob off. Oy, thank goodness I've never had to endure her wrath. Although the funny little dance that Collin did when Kate finally left the room was hilarious.

It's also important, Kate tells us, that they film throughout the year. And they aren't always smiles and giggles. Isn't that the truth!

Because the show has to film in the family house, the crew installed bright lights. Kate acknowledged that being under the lights for about 20 min or more gives her a headache. So I'm assuming that the kids feel the same way. And yet, as parents, Kate and Jon do nothing. This is a little concerning. Why don't they do something about this? They can choose to stop filming!

We get to meet the entire crew - at any given time of filming, I think there's about 3-4 people in the house. Yikes. That's a lot of extra adults and *stuff* in the house. Jon tells us that he does like everyone in the house because he likes being around people.

Jon and Kate tell us that their interview set is actually a corner of their basement. Because they didn't have anywhere else to go, they painted a corner and made it look like a new place. A typical interview takes anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half. And the only way they get through the time is to eat *gormet* jelly beans. Kate does admit that they aren't organic, but she gets over it. We see footage of the kids trying to eat jelly beans and Jen, the producer, sneaking Joel one piece.

We see footage of Kate's *love* taps. It's kind of scary how much she hits him. I think my boyfriend would be upset at me if I hit him like that all the time.

A lot of this episode is showing footage of the family doing stuff and seeing the crew follow the family around. The one day that bothers me is Christmas. I'm wondering if it was actually filmed on Christmas itself. I would hope that the crew would be able to spend the day with their families.

Kate did declare that they haven't been on vacation without the cameras ever and that one should be in order. Hmm...I have yet to hear that they've done anything without showing it to the world.

Cara and Mady decided that they were going to ask questions of Jon and Kate in an interview setting. They had really cute questions and seemed to think them through. The girls are really adorable and it's nice to see them thriving.

Finally, Kate tells us that they constantly get emails from viewers saying that they don't want the show to end. People want to see the kids grow up.

I admit, I have fallen in love with these kids. But I'd be perfectly fine with an annual update of what's going on in their lives, rather than a chronicle of everytime they poop. Literally.

SassySarah's Review: Boring episode. I didn't really care what happens behind the scenes...and we didn't even get to see the *real* behind the scenes - editing, etc. No thumbs up or down.